The Secret's Out!
by UnSTaBle Existence
Summary: ON HAITUS until August hopefully. Yukina accidentaly sends Shigure the latest update of her novel while in a hurry. Will Shigure make the connection between Yupina and Yukina? How will he react? Pairings undecided.
1. The Accident

_Setting: _chapter 14.

_AN: _Ugh, the intro sounds awful. Warnings; A) the characters might be a bit OOC. B) for the sake of making this story work, let's pretend that Shigure and Yukina swapped numbers.

Chapter 1

**~ The Accident ~**

Himuro Yukina's PoV

Two days ago was the day that I experienced something frightening: being carried like a princess. Although it looked fun and doing so would help with the novel, I was not going to do that again if I could help it. It was downright _scary_.

Yesterday was the day when Shigure bit the nape of my neck. It hurt, that shouldn't be surprising, but gave me a better idea of what it felt like to be bitten. And what I should or should not add to the story. I also got to watch as Mami clung onto Shigure like her life depended on it when mission 12 was finished.

Today was the day that Akira learned about Mission 12. He had kissed me on the side of my neck, healing Lilia like the caring knight he was, even though Shigure was watching.

And what am I doing right now? I am doing none other than updating my novel. Finally! With the events of the past three days, I have enough materials to continue the novel, and hopefully snatch back first place again.

Notebook by my side, I wrote my next chapter:

_The Earl took in Lilia's unconscious form. He couldn't leave her lying outside the way she was so he picked her up, holding her delicately as if she were a fragile piece of ice that could break or melt at any moment. Carrying her like a princess, he walked towards the direction of the castle._

_After a couple of minutes, Lilia stirred. The ice princess was wondering why she was feeling so warm when she realized that she was being carried by the one and only Earl. Blushing slightly, she was about to ask him to let her down when she noticed how she was being carried._

_Lilia was absolutely petrified. Throwing her arms around the Earls neck, she buried her face into the hollow of his neck. _

_The Earl was surprise at this reaction, but soon overcame it and chuckled. "Is something bothering you?" he asked with a small smile._

"_Y-yes. I don't l-like the way you're carrying me. Can you take a seat somewhere then let me off?" she answered in a small voice._

"_Why, of course." Finding a bench, he sat down but didn't let the princess go. Instead, he tightened his grip on her and brought his nose to her neck. "You're blood smells absolutely delicious. I hadn't noticed since I haven't been this close to you before."_

_Moving his face, he gazed deep into Lilia's eyes. "Can I drink it?"_

_Helpless under the powerful stare, she simply nodded, bewildered._

_Wordlessly, the Earl centered his gaze on the princess' lower neck. Lilia could feel his hand gently caress the place where he was planning on biting._

_Slowly, the Earls hot breath got closer and closer to Lilia's neck. With each breath, she felt her body warming up a little more, felt a bit more out of control._

_When she was finally bitten, she was burning. The bite had hurt, but compared to how her body felt it was as if the pain didn't exist. _

_The Earl didn't have any time to take any blood though, for Lilia's knight appeared and roughly shoved him to the side."What are you doing to the princess!" he cried out angrily. _

"_Well well, since Mr. Knight is here, seems like I'll have to go. Good bye, princess." Licking his lips and collecting the little blood that had seeped out, the Earl turned around walked away, out of sight in mere seconds. _

_Cain whirled around to find his princess sitting on the ground with a flushed face and slightly bleeding neck. 'That man, how dare he do this to Lilia!' he thought, seething._

_Sighing, he attempted to calm himself down. The princess's health was more important._

_Kneeling in front of Lilia, he bowed and requested, "The wound on your neck from that guy, allow a kiss from this knight Cain to heal it."_

_At first the princess did not answer. She merely stood up with regained composure and started to walk away in the direction of the castle. "I never knew you had such a power."_

"_Would you like to know more about it?"_

_Lilia paused and turned her head back to look at Cain. She was about to answer when suddenly a pair of arms were wrapped around her waist and soft lips pressed against the bleeding wound._

_~Yupina_

Aaaand the chapter is finished! I wondered how my fans would react to this chapter. They were really excited about little things like holding hands… Well, first I need to post it.

Glancing at the clock, I realized that it was already 12:15 AM. Damn. I spent too long on the , I pressed the necessary buttons and went to bed. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be hearing excited fans talk about my story. With that in mind, I fell asleep.

At Kitami Shigure's House

In Shigure's room, his phone was ringing. Still half asleep, he wondered who would send him a text at 12:17 AM. Flipping open his phone, he saw it came from Yukina. '_Odd_', he thought. '_She's never sent me anything before. Guess this must be important_.' Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he started reading the long text message.

_AN: _Oh geez, that was awfully written. And it was such a great idea to. Well, let's just see what you think about it.


	2. Suspicion

_AN_: This story will be written in third person-ish now (not like there was much first person anyways). I hope the change in style isn't too too drastic.

Oh, before I forget: OMGthankyousomuch HeroineOfTime4242 and krissy2lip for reviewing, as well as all those who put this story on alerts/favorites!

"Oh my…" - talking

'_Oh my…' _- thinking

Chapter 2

**~Suspicion~**

"Yukina! Yukina! My gosh, this has never happened before." A motherly tone rang out in the room.

Yukina cracked open an eyelid only to immediately close it. The curtains had been pulled back from the window so that sunlight was streaming in.

"Honey, our daughter isn't waking up!" The worried tone of the mother continued to ramble on. "She's never been late for school before!"

"We should call the school and tell them she won't be coming. There's no need to panic." A deeper voice of a father answered, cool and calm.

Yukina jumped out of bed and swiveled her head towards the clock. Oh yeah, she was definitely late. There was only ten minutes until the first class would start.

Her gaze then traveled to her mother who was standing at the doorway, talking with her husband who was in the kitchen on the first floor and not yet aware that her daughter had woken up.

"How do I wake her up? I don't want her late for school but I don't want her in a bad mood either. I might have to make her breakfast and leave it on the table for her to have… And honey, you should also be at work. We can't have you late as well." The mother turned around to try to wake up Yukina again, only to find her almost finished dressing for school.

Any other person would have been surprised at the speed in which the girl had changed, but this was her mother after all. She knew what her own daughter was capable of, even if she couldn't get many words out of her.

"Oh, thank goodness you awake. I can have your dad drive you to school. Akira had already left earlier. But what will you do for breakfast?"

Wordlessly the girl brushed passed her mother, and without looking back, began speed walking down the stairs. "Then I should leave now. I can get something to eat at school."

Shigure didn't have quite the easy-going morning. When his alarm clock began to ring at 7 AM, he sat up with a groan. '_What the hell was with that text? Does Yukina realize that she made me stay up for more than an hour trying to decode the meaning of it!'_

Shaking his head, he decided not to worry about it until he could confront the girl about the seemingly random act.

As he stumbled out the door, planning on walking to school, he only had two seconds to register a blur of movement before he was glomped.

"Shiiiiii~guuuuuu~reeeeee! How are you this morning?" The cheerful and energetic blur was now recognized as his childhood friend, Mami.

"Ugh, how can you be energetic?"

As Mami reluctantly un-glomped herself from Shigure she noticed the beginnings of dark circles under his eyes. "Whoa, you know that those dark circles are going to ruin your otherwise flawless appearance."

"What dark circles?"

"The ones under your eyes. Didn't you notice them this morning?" Taking his surprised face into account, she continued. "Obviously not. So, what made you stay up so late? It couldn't have been studies."

"I got a text really early in the morning, around 12 AM. I thought it was important, so I read it straight away, but just couldn't seem to figure out the importance." Shigure thought that that would have ended the conversation, but Mami was not to be satisfied with such a brief explanation.

"Can I read the text? Maybe I can figure out what it means. Unless, of course, it's guy stuff."

Shigure looked at her with disbelief. '_And since when did "guy stuff" ever stop you from doing whatever you wanted?'_ But he submissively took out his cell from his bag and brought up the text.

As Mami began to read the text, she recognized the style of writing and the story. She was so engrossed that she didn't say a word the entire time she was reading. Shigure found this silence odd because usually she would be blabbing her thoughts as she read, but was too tired to ask why this text made her wordless.

By the end of the text, Mami's eyes were shining. She was thrilled with the development of the chapters, though the last part when the princess was surprised that the knight had healing power sounded somewhat familiar…

"So, you figured out anything?" Shigure's voice jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Of course! This is only the update of the number 1, most popular cell phone novel for girls around right now, written by Yupina!" She explained, handing the cell back to its owner. "So many girls are reading it; I'm surprised you haven't heard of it yet with all the girls surrounding you."

"Well, it does sound familiar –"

"And it's not in first place for nothing too! The suspense in the relationship between the handsome mischievous earl and the ice princess, and the surprise confession of a knight protecting the said princess, it's great! And then there's the question of who can melt the ice princesses frozen and emotionless heart…"

Shigure tuned her out at this point, not realizing the importance of this information*. Instead wondering why Yukina had sent him a chapter of a popular girl's cell phone novel. Surely the next mission didn't involve replaying the scene in the chapter! '_I mean, she hates being picked up princess style. Wait, the princess in the story did as well… But Yukina wouldn't want to go through that again. Then, she wants to play out the princess and the knight scene? Actually, it has a familiar feel to it for some reason… But maybe it isn't even for a mission! But then what could it be for if not?'_

"…gu …..igure!….. Shigure! You were totally spacing out. Just how sleep deprived are you?" This time it was Mami who broke Shigure's train of thought. "We're almost at school, so you better get your act going, otherwise your fan girls might see the true you."

Stopping Shigure, she fixed his uniform and ran ahead into the school, leaving her childhood friend to deal with his fan girls as he met them. When she got to the class, Mami realized that she had forgotten to ask Shigure who had sent him that text. _Oh well, guess it doesn't really matter. He always gets texts from girls._

* * *

It was five minutes before class started, and the teacher still wasn't in the class. Neither was Yukina, so the students were freely having their conversations without feeling crept out. They just found it hard to keep a normal conversation going when shivers kept rolling down their backs.

Three minutes before class started, and still no teacher or Yukina. The students were having high hopes that neither would show up, when suddenly the room went quiet. The Absolute Zero Snow Woman had walked in the door. But the only difference was that the air around her was different, as if she wasn't staring into the heart of some poor individual.

Yukina of course noticed the surprised faces on the students and sent them an emotionless stare, which was misinterpreted as a glare. _'I can't believe my ears. I haven't been hearing anything about my newly updated chapter. It's as if no one has read it. What's going on?_'

Yukina listened into the conversation that the girls were having. They seemed more relaxed than usual around her. Yukina cast that out of her mind as she listened to the talk.

"Are you sure Mami? Last I checked Yupina hadn't updated."

"I'm sure! Shigure got a text with the newest update! It should be out by now if he has it."

"What do you mean he has the newest update? Does he have connections with the author! I'm sooo jealous. I bet the author is a cute girl or a beautiful woman. I mean, men just can't write that kind of story."

"Why are you talking about the author? I want to know how I can get the next chapter! Mami, can you forward us the text, or get Shigure to? We'd love you!"

"Ohmygosh, yeah, that would be great!"

Yukina processed this new piece of information. _What did they mean I didn't update. And why does Shigure have the next chapter?_ But Yukina didn't have time to think as the teacher walked in, seemingly a bit annoyed and tired.

'_Damn kid,' _the teacher was thinking. '_At least get your uniform on properly before coming here and tell us who you are! Don't just barge into the principal's office demanding things…' _

With a sigh, he did the attendance and seemed to steel himself. "Alright brats, we have an unexpected transfer student. Please stay calm when you meet him." He turned towards the closed slightly open door and called out, "Alex, you can come in now."

"Okay, ya seechas eedoo."**

_AN_: So, if you have any ideas or would like to see something happen, tell me and there's a 95% chance you'll see in a future chapter. I always accept ideas, even thought the plot is slowly solidifying for this story.

And of course tell me what you think in reviews. I'll put you on the _OMGthankyousomuch_ list and give you cookie, so please? .

* This little ramble that Mami had going on is to be a vital little snippet of info for Shigure since it helps him connect the dots between Yukina and Yupina, and how she uses real life events/peoples personalities for her stories.

** This is Russian. The entire sentence says "Okay, I'm coming now."


	3. The Transfer Student

_OMGthankyousomuch_: krissy2lip, AzraeLiv 'Kurosora' G.M.A, and anon for reviewing. Cookies for all of you.

Chapter 3

**~The Transfer Student~**

"Oh, it's a guy!" "I wonder if he's cute," "His name is Alex, so he must be a foreigner," "Obviously, didn't you hear his comment when the teacher called for him?" "His voice was pretty deep!" was the conversation that the girls were having, which Yukina unintentionally listened in on again. Yukina herself had no interest, though her observant nature wouldn't let her ignore the new student.

Fwoosh. The sound of the door suddenly opening made the room go quiet, and everyone in the room had their curious gaze locked on the incoming student. Except, of course, the teacher, whose enraged face didn't change.

"Privet* everyone!" Yukina watched as Alex walked in, taking in every detail. He had entered the room waving with one hand while the other was shoved into his pocket, and he was tall. There was a swagger in his step, arrogance in his voice and he wore a mischievous smile, yet there was a sense of ease and carelessness around him. Although the feeling of carelessness may have come from the fact that his dirty blond hair was messily styled.

He was wearing the school uniform even though it was his first day at the school, but he most definitely didn't wear it properly. His shirt was almost halfway unbuttoned, and his jacket wasn't at all. This showed a hint of some pretty ripped abs. By the looks of it it seemed as if he had given up on tying the tie, so it just hung around his neck loosely. But the one thing that surprised Yukina the most was that behind the rebellious spark in his green eyes, there seemed to be kindness. '_Hmm, although I was expecting someone normal, he definitely looks like an interesting character._'

"Kyaa! He's sooo cute!" "What language was that!" "What are you good at?" "He's probably good at everything, lol" "Where did you come from!" Many of the students were exited at the idea of the foreigners, though the girls were more excited about his looks and his attitude. The boys were split in half by those who wanted to become friends and those who didn't like his attitude. Yukina on the other hand had seen everything she could, and so was not as interested any more.

"Class!" The newly fuming teacher shouted. "I thought I told you runts to be calm when he walks in!" Again the class fell silent, no one wanting to oppose the short tempered teacher.

"Ahem. Alex, I understand that this is your first time at this school, but surely this isn't the first time you have worn a uniform. We went over this in the office." At this Alex buttoned up the rest except the top two buttons and left his jacket open with the tie untouched. Barely keeping in his cool, the teacher continued. "So Alex introduce yourself to the class and please come to the office during lunch so you can fix you uniform and learn the rules, or a class volunteer can do that."

"All righty then. As you know, my name is Alex, though the full version is Alexander. My nickname is Sasha, but that doesn't really matter. To answer some of your questions, I was speaking Russian earlier. I'm better at sports than academics, but better at academics than art. And I come from all over the world, I'm not joking. My father travels all over the world and drags me along. That's it."

This simple background told Yukina quite a bit of things. One of those was that he was used to transferring schools, so this made her wonder why he would be angering the teachers by not wearing his uniform properly. '_Ah whatever. I need to figure out what happened to my chapter. If it was deleted I'll … well, I'm not sure what I'd do but I'd be in deep trouble._' With that in mind Yukina took out her cell phone and started to search for the newest chapter.

"Alex, you can sit in the only available seat in the class. Is there anyone who wants to give him a tour of the school and explain the rules?" Almost all of the girls' hands shot up in the air. "Then you choose between yourselves. Now class is starting, so keep you mouths shut and pay attention. You can get to know Alex during your breaks."

As Alex made his way towards his seat, the girls were already whispering again. "Isn't he just such a mean teacher? I mean he called us runts!" "Ugh, I can't stand him. No one can go against him." "Why don't they just fire him?"

The teacher was already writing things on the board, so when he heard the whispering he snapped. "Girls, what did I say about talking? It must be my unlucky day today. Students aren't listening to me; a foreigner can't wear his uniform properly, seriously." Then he caught sight of Yukina on her cell.

"And now there is someone on their cell phone. HIMURO. You know the rules around cell phones. Put it away." Yukina merely looked up from the screen and met his eyes. "Sir? Did you say something?"

"Don't mess with me! You heard me loud and clear. Put it away."

Yukina's stare didn't waver, and her voice stayed the in the same monotone. "Sir?"

"Don't you stare at me, a teacher, like that you little horror." With an expressionless face, Yukina kept staring at the teacher. First, his face became purple with anger, and then slowly became red, pink, and normal as it faded away. His glare turned into simple stare, then cold sweat started running down his forehead.

"Ahem," was his only comment as he turned around to continue his lesson. All the kids in the class, although grateful that the teacher had calmed down, avoided looking at Yukina directly.

"Wow, that's quite impressive. Who is that girl?" was Alex's comment.

"Oh no, you're beside Himuro, Alex. That's not good." One of the girls whispered to him, no longer afraid of the teacher. "Yeah," another girl chirped in. "You shouldn't get close to her. We nickname her the 'Absolute Zero Snow woman." "And we don't call her that for nothing," the third girl added. "She freezes up anyone she glares at apparently, and it's said that if she touches you you'll get frostbite because her skin is so cold." "So you better not approach her, Alex. If she ever stares at you, try to ignore it and hope that she won't kill you."

"That's ridiculous, you girls. Aren't those just rumors?" Alex took the moment to look over at the girl they were talking about who was sitting beside him, staring with disbelief at her cell phone. One of the girls answered Alex's question "Oh no. Just wait until she gives you the stare. She's scared a lot of girls and guys with it. She has no friends other than her cousin Akira who's a weirdo."

Alex chuckled a bit. "Well, isn't that just lonely. Guess I'll ask her to give me a tour of the school." The girls faces dropped. "No way! It's gotta be me." "What are you talking about! You always get lost. Alex, leave it to me." "No fair Miko! –"

"Now then girls, calm down. All of you can show me around." And with an award winning smile, Alex almost sent the girls swooning and they drifted off into their own dreamlands. But Alex was still curious about the girl called Himuro. With the new fan-girls not pestering him anymore, he looked over at the Yukina and wanted to test some things out to see if the rumors were true, but Yukina was rapidly pressing buttons on her cell at that moment.

After her little spat with the teacher, she had gone back to searching for her new chapter when she realized that it indeed had not been posted up on the web. After some time searching, found what she was looking for. And was not happy with the results. _'There is no way, absolutely no way, this is true. I must be lacking sleep from last night.'_ Almost in a frenzy, Yukina tried to find the chapter again only to come up with the same result. She tried again and again, but to no avail. Finally she gave up and accepted the truth. She had sent her new chapter in the form of a text to Shigure in the middle of the night.

Slightly in shock, she copied the chapter and sent it to the proper face, making sure she didn't send it as a text again. Closing her cell phone, she took out her note book with her story ideas and missions. Setting in front of her on the desk, she put her cell phone on top of the notebook instead of placing it back in her bag.

Now there was one only question hovering in Yukina's mind. '_What am I going to do? Should I confront him face to face about it and tell him I'm Yupina? Wait, no, that's a bad idea. He might not agree to do this anymore. But I can still blackmail him! But he was finally starting to accept the missions, so he might get reluctant again. And the story is getting into more romance so I can't have him be so reluctant…' _After a bit of thought Yukina decided that during the break between classes she would find Shigure and make up a story as to why she sent such an odd text, hoping that Shigure wouldn't know of the existence of the cell phone author who writes stories for girls.

"So for homework you have to get pages 38 to 55 done and memorize page 58 by the next lesson." And the bell rang signifying the end of class. As she stood to leave her desk shook and everything fell off. With a small sound of annoyance, she turned to pick her things up only to bump into the transfer student who was already picking up her things.

Yukina started at the boy for several seconds before letting out a curt "Thank you". She reached for her things and took what the boy had organized and he replied back with a lazy smile and a "No problem". As Alex gave Yukina her things their hands touched, and Alex felt a shiver go up his arms. _'Woah, they really are cold, but not enough to give someone frostbite.' _He didn't show any sign of discomfort and simply smiled again. "Hey, I'm Alex, which you already know. What's your name? Thought I'd ask since we're gonna be neighbors from now on."

"Yukina Himuro." With brisk nod, she stuffed her things in her bag and walked off to find Shigure.

"Hey Alex, why did you talk to that girl after we told you not to." A whiny voice from one fan girl asked. Since Yukina had left Alex was now surrounded by fan-girls who wanted to get to know him better.

"I just thought I'd help her with her things. She is a girl after all." Mami, who was part of the group though not a fan-girl, stood up on her toes and whispered into his ear "Even though you kicked the leg of the desk so that her things would fall?" The other girls didn't notice as they were too busy 'aww'ing making comments such as "He's such a gentleman."

With a small mischievous smile, Alex looked away from Mami. In his bag he felt an unfamiliar cell phone and an extra notebook. Innocently he replied "Now why ever would I do that?"

_AN:_ Should there be more mystery, more angst, more romance, or longer chapters? Do you like where this story is going or is it starting to get boring? Only the reviews can tell me! This time I'm giving away cake for those who review, and of course you will be on the _OMGthankyousomuch_ list. Whoa, that really sounds like an advertisement. Well in any case, thanks for the support!

*_Privet_ = hi or the short way of saying hello. (of course, Russian)


	4. Black Mailed

_AN:_ In the reviews I was given some pretty good ideas. But now I need to find a way to make them sound good… well, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." (Though I have to wonder how do you tie a knot when you're supposedly hanging, because sometimes when you're in a tight spot you can't think of many things. Wait, what if you don't even know how to tie the knot, as in come up with short term solutions? Ugh, this is why I hate metaphors.)

_OMGthankyousomuch:_ aviechan, AzraeLiv 'Kurosora' G.M.A, DangerFiction, filipinochick, krissy2lip and xXKnightsXx. A cake of your choice is now in your possession. ;D

Chapter 4

**~Black mailed~**

Yukina walked swiftly out of the class to find a Shigure whom she had not seen yet that morning. She found him by his locker surrounded by the usual group of friends, and within the ten seconds that she saw him as she walked closer, he had yawned once and rubbed his eyes twice. Of course it didn't escape her notice that he had dark circles under his eyes. Without slowing down, Yukina lightly tugged on his sleeve as she walked by to get his attention away from the crowd around him, and indicated for him to follow her.

After excusing himself, Shigure trailed after the girl. From the way Yukina's eyes were darting from place to place, he figured that she wanted to go to a spot where no one could find them and they'd be alone. Taking the lead, he led her to a place he sometimes went for solitude. Upon arriving there, the two faced each other and took a deep breath, each wanting to let out the questions that they've been holding in.

"So, I don't know ho-"

"I wanted to-"

Both of them started simultaneously. "Okay, you go first, Yukina, since you're the one who called me over. What did you need?" Although Shigure had wanted to ask about what the text the night before was about, his "boring" mask, as Yukina called it, was still slightly in place and his gentleman-ways kicked in.

Yukina glanced side to side before starting. "Well, I wanted have a talk with you during lunch, since there isn't enough time right now."

"Great," Shigure answered, "I had something I wanted to ask you as well. Then, should we meet-"

"Shiii~guuu~reee!" Shigure was interrupted by the familiar voice of his childhood friend. "I know you're here!"

The door opened slightly and Mami's face peeked into the room. She wasn't in the least happy to find Shigure alone with Yukina. Quickly hiding her dissatisfaction, she smiled brightly and swung the door wide open to present an obviously displeased Akira with the usual donut in his mouth.

"Shigure, Shigure!" Mami slipped beside him and grasped his arm. "It's almost time for class. I'm here to bring you there, since I didn't want you to be late."

Mami then saw the questioning gaze that Shigure was sending towards Akira. "Oh, Akira was just looking for Yukina. Apparently he needed to tell her something urgent. And before you ask how I found you, your friends said you walked off and mentioned that Yukina was there."

During this time Akira had slipped beside Yukina, the bangs over his eyes making his expression unreadable to anyone but his cousin. '_That doesn't explain how you knew they were here and why they would want to talk alone,'_ he thought. Putting that thought out of his mind, he whispered to Yukina as Mami was trying to coax Shigure out the door, "You shouldn't be around him too much. I don't like the look in his eyes when he talks to you."

Yukina simply nodded, preoccupied with the thought that she didn't know where to meet Shigure for lunch for their meeting.

Mami on the other hand, was glancing occasionally at Yukina, sending her cold smiles that barely hid her irritation. Yukina was a nobody, a person who was unlovable and emotionless, so why is it that she had found the Absolute Zero Snow Woman alone with Shigure more than once now! Sure Shigure had wanted to make every girl confess to him, but he was taking things a bit too far. In that moment Mami came up with the perfect plan that would separate the two.

Feeling a bit better, she let go of Shigure and skipped over to Yukina. "Here, a flower for you." Threading the flower into her enemies hair, she twirled over to Shigure once again and said, "Five minutes 'till class starts, I'd hurry."

Yukina was angry at the fresh flower that had appeared in her hair. _'Can't that woman leave me alone? She gets on my nerves so much. Rubbing it into my face that she knows the real Shigure more than I do (which I really need to know for my novel) and flaunting of her control over him (which I wish I had more of so that my story could progress faster).'_

With a sigh rivaling that of Akira's, she walked out of the room after Mami and Shigure to get to her class. She reached into her bag to find her cell phone so that she would have a mission ready for Shigure for their lunch meeting, but couldn't find it. '_Odd, where could it have gone? I'm sure I had it this morning… I hope no one took it and looked through it accidentally… I really shouldn't stay up late again. It's ruining my concentration and deduction skills."_

Akira's glance of concern towards Yukina went by unnoticed.

* * *

It was the last class before lunch and Alex was already well known in his grade, and not just as the foreigner transfer student who sat beside the Snow Woman. He was a prankster who would help almost any woman, whether she was ugly or beautiful, kind or short-tempered. And at the moment he was playing a prank on the teacher from his first class.

As it ended up, that teacher that every student hated was acting as a sub for the original teacher, which is why he was teaching two subjects that day. And it wasn't as if Alex was playing a prank of him to get revenge for the students. That was just his excuse. The real reason was that it was fun to see a teacher with that personality become utterly clueless.

He sat there grinning in his seat, not paying attention to the said teacher in the least. Luckily for him, the class was Foreign Language class, so he didn't need to pay attention.

Every once in a while, Alex tossed a scrunched up piece of paper towards a student in the class, and an eraser would shoot towards the unsuspecting teacher shortly afterwards. Everyone was in on the plan to harass the teacher, so whenever the demanding "Who did this just now!" was asked, the only answer would be giggles and smirks.

Of course the teacher couldn't send the entire class to the principal's office, so he tried to find the people who were doing the throwing. And to no avail, as the erasers came from above, and at full strength, so it wasn't as if someone was lobbing them.

Alex barely kept in his laughter, surprised that the teacher hadn't given up on trying to find the mastermind of it all, and watched as the teachers' pride slowly started to deteriorate. Alex reminded himself to thank the nurse for finding some of the supplies for him.

It was a simple and crude plan really, and shouldn't take a long time to find out how it all worked. Alex had come into the class early to set it all up with a group enthusiastic boys. Using bottle caps, small boxes, erasers of proper size, elastic bands, long clear plastic string, rulers and tape, he set up his trap.

The trap is set up as follows*:

1. Take a small box and cut out one of the sides. Then set the erasers inside the box, and line them up in a way that the erasers could slip out of the cut side easily and one at a time. Tape/staple an elastic band to one of the open edges that was cut.

2. Take the cut off side of the box and attach it to one of the long clear strings. Then place the piece into the elastic attached to the box. The cut side will work as a barrier to make sure the erasers don't fall out, and the string is so that when you pull it, the piece opens and lets one eraser fall out. And you place the door in the elastic to ensure that the door will close.

3. Next take the rubber band and tape/staple it once to the ruler. Take a bottle cap and attach it to the opposite side of the stapled elastic. On the cap attach a long clear string. This will act as the sling shot. The eraser goes into the cap, and the string pulls the rubber band tight. The ruler is there so that you can aim the sling.

4. Place the ruler in any designated area, and set it at the angle wanted to that it will hit the target. Place the box with the cut side/barrier facing the bottle cap and angled down so that the erasers can slide out.

5. Optional but Recommended: Make a small closed hook nearby the "machine" that was just made. Thread the two stings though it. This is done so that the strings aren't just hanging randomly in the air making them easy to spot, but stay along the wall longer so that they are harder to find.

For those that couldn't follow the procedure shouldn't worry too much. When Alex had tried to explain it to his classmates, they all stared at him with blank faces, and didn't quite understand what he was saying and were lost by step 2. However, when they saw what the end product looked like, it was very simple to understand.

Basically, String #1 is pulled to make the sling taunt and String #2 is pulled to have the amo fall into the sling. When String #1 is released, the sling fires.

The two places we set the traps were above the window to the left of the board, and above the door to the right of the board. So obviously the person who sat in the second row near the window controlled the one above the window, and the person in the second row who sat closest to the door controlled the second one.

And the result was one confused teacher who didn't even think that it was a mechanism which was firing at him. Alex threw the papers at the people controlling the strings to tell them when to fire; and when the teacher accused Alex of passing notes, the teacher found that the paper was blank, further amusing the class and Alex.

Fifteen minutes before class ended, the teacher was fuming and left the classroom without a word, probably to complain to the principal. Teacherless, the students now had fifteen minutes of social time.

"Hey Alex, how did you come up with building that thing?" one boy asked.

"Well, how should I explain this." Alex's eyes wandered over the group of interested listeners, both female and male. "Well, before coming here to Japan I was in Russia. And I have to tell you the kids there are real pranksters. They would be laughing at this prank and call it lame. They have some pretty harsh games there you know. So it was from there that I learned the art."

"Makes sense. Thanks for the free time you gave us!" The boy who asked the question had a happy smile on his face.

"Yeah, seriously. Especially with that teacher. His way of treating us can almost be called verbal abuse," was the comment of one of the whiny fan-girls.

The grateful group around him grew slightly smaller as some walked off into their own social groups. Others were still pressing him about his past, but Alex evaded the questions and changed the topic.

"So, I've been hearing something about a Yupina? Any idea who or what it is?" Actually, Alex hadn't heard anything of the sort, but when he read the notebook he had, um, borrowed from Yukina he had seen the name.

To be more specific, on the first page there was a bunch on different names, but one was circled multiple times and on the next page there was written "Yupina: Popularity Rank" with dates and assumingly the rank beside it.

"Oh My Gosh, she's a fabulous writer." One girl offered up information. "Though I'm not sure if a guy like you would be interested, probably not. But most of the girls now are reading her novel."

"Is that so?" Some pieces fell into place for Alex. Yukina was a popular writer Yupina, and the notebook he had 'borrowed' was her idea notebook. Originally he had only planned on taking the cell phone to get Yukina's number, but he ended up taking the notebook as well since it looked different from the school stuff. Now he was glad that he took the notebook in the spur of the moment.

Intrigued by the concept of such an anti-social character being a popular novelist, Alex decided to ask someone who wouldn't judge him too much for asking about a girl story.

Five minutes before class was officially suppose to end, he headed for the nurses office to ask about Yupina. He learned that the story had a strong rival and was lacking in romance somewhat, though recently it had been getting better, and other small details like that.

"Thanks for telling me that, Miss Nurse." Alex flashed a brilliant smile at the young nurse. "Not many people would tell me more about story since I was a guy."

"No problem, I'm glad to help you since you are new to the school." The lady turned around and started to organize some medicines.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Thanks for the supplies that you gave me earlier. They were a huge help."

"Again, no problem. Though I have to wonder, what did you use it for?"

"Do you really want to know?" His mischievous smile came back.

The nurse simply gave him a side glance and a "Mhmm", going back to separating empty bottles from full ones.

"Well, I used them to make slingshots. And we attacked the teacher during his lecture."

"You did not." The nurse's face was full of surprise.

"I sure did." The confirmation made the nurse smile slightly and she started throwing empty bottles of medicine at the boy playfully.

"Hey hey, I thought they heal you here!" Alex ran out of the room in order to escape the onslaught of empty bottle aimed at him. In his hurry he ran into the one and only Yukina, accidentally knocking off her glasses and making her drop her lunch.

"Ouch. Sorry 'bout that Yukina. Here, lemmie… hel..p …" His voice trailed off as he watched Yukina sitting in the middle of the hallway, arms wrapped around herself and quivering.

"Hey, you alright?" Never would Alex have thought that the strong Yukina that could stand against a teacher would be quivering helplessly in front of him. And for no apparent reason.

Then he noticed that Yukina's hand was slowly moving around her, as if searching for something. "Oh, your glasses." Picking them up, he slipped them onto her face. "Never knew that you were so blind that you couldn't recognize anything around you without them."

"That is an incorrect assumption." In a flash, Yukina had stood up and was back to her usual personality, lunch in hand.

"Oh is it really? Then would you mind explaining to me the correct reason?"

"It is none of your concern." Yukina walked off quickly, but Alex was right behind her.

Taking out the girl's cell phone and notebook, he dangled it in front of her face. "So you don't mind if your classmates just happen to figure out that Yupina is really Yukina, do you?"

Yukina froze. "So you were the one with my phone!" She began jumping to snatch back her items.

"Yep. And you're not getting you things back until my curiosity is satisfied." As Yukina was jumping Alex used his height to his advantage, keeping the phone and notebook out of reach.

Finally giving up, Yukina walked off and called over her shoulder, "We have until my meeting with Shigure. That is all the time I have right now."

"No problem."

_AN: _Sorry for the lack of romance, but the next mission will appear soon. Mami's plan will come into action, Alex's weakness will be revealed, and Yupina might possibly update her novel, so look forward to the next chapter! And also the chapters are getting a bit longer which I'm glad for, since my time to write fanfics seem to be shortening. :S

* If anyone was wondering, no I have never made it before and the design is all theoretical. This is something I made up in my mind, so there are probably many flaws to this mechanism. You are welcome to try to build it, but any injuries are not my fault…


	5. Secrets Revealed

Chapter 5

**~Secrets Revealed~**

The day had been going by slow enough already for Yukina, but now she had to deal with someone blackmailing her. She slowed her gait so that Alex could walk by her side, and stayed silent until they reached the roof. Luckily for her, there was no one there and virtually no way to eavesdrop.

With a sigh, she plopped herself down and stared at Alex. "So, what was it that you wanted to know?"

Alex smiled slightly. "Well, there are three main questions."

Yukina waited for Alex to continue, but he didn't say a word, and looked at Yukina expectantly.

"What is it?" Yukina stared right back, unperturbed.

"Well, seeing as you have the type of personality that won't answer all my questions, you can choose not to answer one of them. But only one. Then I'll give back your things."

Yukina saw that she really didn't have a choice but to answer them, though she was slightly relieved that she could get a by for one. "Fine. I agree. What are the questions?"

Alex's eyes widened slightly in surprise. He hadn't expected her to agree so readily. Maybe the things he held hostage really were important.

"Okay then. Question numero* 1: Why don't you want people to know that you're Yupina?"

After a slight pause, Yukina answered with a firm, "No comment."

"Are you sure you want to use it that early? You might regret it."

"Everyone has their reasons. What is the next question?" Yukina had simply wanted to get this questionnaire over with so that there would be more time with Shigure and also to get her notebook and cell phone back.

"Alright. If that's what you want. Question sankhyā** 2: What are the 'missions' written in the notebook?"

With no choice other than to answer, Yukina replied honestly for she didn't have the strength to lie, and neither was it in her nature to do so. "For my novel I take real people and their personalities to make the characters. However romance is not something I can copy, and so I try to experience it myself. These 'missions' are something I do with a chosen person so I can integrate the feelings I get into the story."

Intrigued once again, the next question slipped out of Alex's mouth. "So, does that mean that I can also become a model character?"

"If I deem you to be suitable. Can I have my things back?"

Alex realized that he had already asked three questions, and slowly brought out the notebook and cell phone. "I am an honest man. I've used up all my three questions."

"Thank you for giving me so much trouble." Yukina replied as she reached for her things.

"My pleasure. And I'm about to give you more." Alex's hands were already pulling off Yukina's glasses. Yukina froze once again. Wrapping her arms around her knees, Yukina buried her face in her arms and sat there, shaking once again.

"I have to say, that's quite the strange reaction you get whenever you glasses come off. You sure it's not because you can't see anything without your glasses and that you become insecure since you can't see a thing?"

A small voice wafted from her buried head. "I have perfect vision. Can I have my glasses back?"

As usual, Alex was bubbling with more questions. And as bad as he felt about putting the girl into an uncomfortable position, he figured this was a rare chance. "Okay, I won't pry into the reason you wear glasses when you have perfect vision. Can I be a model character?"

Yukina sat there, all bunched up and helpless, and didn't answer. Now Alex felt really bad about taking her glasses. "Hey, I'm sorry." Still no reaction. With a sigh, he walked over the pitiful figure and gave her a small hug.

Now, since Yukina had had her glasses taken off quite a bit recently, she had somewhat gotten used to the feeling of not having her glasses on. With a small spark of determination, she lifted up her face and placed one hand on the blondes' hair. She started to pat it, despite the trembling in her arm. "You can model as the main characters pet!"

To Yukina's surprise, this time it was Alex who froze. She couldn't see his expression, but his body had tensed up all of a sudden. What was this all about? Suddenly Alex shot back, out of reach of the girl, and stumbled to a stop at the railing.

It was as if their positions had reversed. Yukina noticed that her cell phone and notebook were right beside her, so she couldn't be blackmailed without him having evidence. But her glasses were still in the grip of the now terrified Alex, though amazingly Yukina forgot about them.

"Z-z-zlo! Ya veezsu zlo! Ostavte menya v pokoe!"*** Alex kept on mumbling words from another language. Slowly, Yukina approached the frightened child, for the way he was acting could only be described as such.

Concerned, Yukina slowly stretched out her hand towards him. "Hey, you alri-"

"Ya scazal ostavte menya v pokoe, teey d-d'yavol." *** After the loud proclamation, he fell silent, gazing at Yukina with panicky eyes.

Yukina assumed that they boy didn't want her near, so she pulled back her hand and started to talk gibberish in a gentle tone. Eventually, the boy's eyes seemed to calm down. Then recognition lit up in his eyes as he looked at Yukina, but he lowered his gaze almost immediately. Shyly he asked, 'You're Yukina, right?"

Yukina wearily nodded, unsure of what was going to happen next. "C-can I have some of your lunch? I m-mean, you don't have to share if you don't want to, b-but I was just getting a bit hungry, a-and…" with his face in full blush, he turned his head away.

'_How should I react in this situation? It's as if he's completely changed…'_ thought Yukina. She nodded silently in hopes of not offending the Alex in front of her. A small smile appeared on his face, and he moved to Yukina and gently pulled the lunch out of her hands. When he opened it up, it was as if he had never seen a Japanese lunch in his life.

"C-can I really h-have some?" He asked again.

This time, Yukina replied aloud. "Yes, you can."

Coincidentally, Alex picked out the sourest piece in the whole lunch, and said "Hey, this tastes pretty good. Who made it?" He kept on trying more of the lunch.

Yukina didn't hear any stuttering, there was no blush anymore, and he wasn't as reserved. "Don't tell me you were acting just then. That's not a great joke to play you know. And can I have my lunch back?"

Alex stopped eating. "Aw shit, it happened didn't it." He looked down at the food he was eating and finally realized he had cleaned up almost half. "Ah, sorry 'bout that. Here, you can have it back."

Alex stood up and stretched his arms, and Yukina took this time to ask her own questions. "Don't change the topic. Why did you do that just know?"

Alex halted his stretching and looked down at the sitting Yukina who was boring a hole in his back. Her expression was dead serious, and she didn't want any light-hearted explanations.

With a small smile, he began. "Know how your glasses being taken off is your little weakness? Well, mine is getting a pat on the head. Split personalities, you know."

Preoccupied with the idea that he had split personalities, Yukina didn't react when she was reminded of her weakness. "So, which one is the original personality. How did you get it?"

"The shy one was the original. He went through a traumatic experience, and so li'l ol' me was created. Well, it's probably like how you went through a trauma which makes you uncomfortable with taking off your glasses, Miss Perfect Vision." Alex bent over and dangled Yukina's glasses in front of her face when he said the last line.

At that moment the roof door swung open, and Shigure was met with the sight of a boy dangling Yukina's glasses in front of her face. In Shigure's mind, this was an obvious case of bullying.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, you jackass!" Losing his cool for a moment, he ran over to stand in front of Yukina and swiped her glasses from Alex.

"And who's this?" Alex straightened himself up right and proved to be several inches taller than Shigure.

With a cough he cleared his throat and became the "boring mask" Shigure. "I am Kitami Shigure, straight A student. And I believe you are Alex the famous transfer student?" Giving a warm smile, he continued. "Sorry for the unseemly behavior I had just exhibited, but would you please refrain from bullying the students of this school?"

"What are you, part of the student council?" Alex replies offhandedly.

"I am actually." Shigure handed back the glasses to Yukina and helped her stand up. "Now, If you'll excuse us." With a nod, he started walking to the door.

Yukina was about to follow Shigure but stopped when she heard Alex's voice. "Oh, Yukina, so he's the guy you had a meeting with?"

Yukina decided a curt answer would be the best in this situation. "Yeah."

Alex studied the boy who was walking off and suddenly something clicked. The way Shigure became protective of Yukina when the people of this school hate her. The way his personality changed when Shigure realized the way he acted. "So the guy you're getting romantic experiences is with him! I see." With a small smile, he waved goodbye to Yukina and made for the door as well.

"Don't you dare try to blackmail me. Otherwise you'll become my pet!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say. See ya."

Shigure wasn't happy with this Alex, who was one of the few people who knew about Yukina's weakness. He was going to ask Yukina about him, but quickly put it out of his mind when he remembered the reason he was having this meeting with Yukina.

Taking the lead, he led them once again to a privet area, which was a small garden-like place. With half of lunch time over, they had to get this talk going.

"Okay, Yukina, what did you want to say?" Opening his lunch box, he began to eat.

"Two things: the text from last night and the next mission." Shigure quickly swallowed his food and asked hurriedly, "Do the two have any connection?"

Yukina looked in surprise, wondering if he was starting to get suspicious of her reasons of doing these missions. Quickly recovering, she dodged the question. "There's not enough time for answering those questions. First off, I'm very sorry for sending you a text so late. But you know you didn't have to pick it up."

Slightly sheepish, Shigure looked away from Yukina's face. "Well, this was the first time you sent me a text, so I thought it was important … But wait! What the hell was it with the text! It was completely random and I don't read girls' cell phone novels, popular or not!"

"I know, that's why I'm saying I'm sorry-"

"Don't tell me the next mission has to do with copying a part of the story you sent me?" Shigure cut in angrily.

"No, no. Don't jump to conclusions. I was going to send that chapter to a relative of mine since she's really forgetful, and ended up sending it to you. Calm down."

"Oh, so that was it. But you still gave me a lot of trouble. At first I thought it was some kind of code and was spending more than an hour trying to decipher it. So, what's mission 13?"

"Let me find it. While I look for it you can ask your question." Opening her cell phone she re-read the last few chapters of her story and tried to think of something she could do. She also looked at her notebook but realized that there were no idea's for the next chapter.

"Right," started Shigure. "My question was about the text, so you already answered it."

"Mmm, kay." Thinking back on her story, so far there had only been friendship with all the rainbows and unicorns and the such. She had added the holding hands and the princess hold, but now she needed something ever closer.

"Right. Mission 13: Save me." Shigure stared at the girl. "Isn't that a bit of a broad subject? Shouldn't it be more specific, as in how do I save you and from what?"

"I was getting to that. After school I'll stay in my gym clothes instead of changing, and will clean the pool. Although it's spring, it's still only 46˚ outside (8˚ C). So, you will have to help me out of the cold. That simple."

Having finished his lunch, Shigure had nothing to choke on, but he felt as if he could anyways. "What are people going to think when they see me with-"

"Shigure? We're having an emergency meeting in the committee. If you can hear me can you follow me there? Shigure? We have a meeting right now. If you can hear me…" On and on the girl called out.

"See you after school then Yukina." Packing up his lunch, he ran out to meet the girl. Yukina listened as his voice grew faint.

With a sigh, Yukina decided maybe integrating Alex into the story wouldn't be such a bad idea, seeing as the plot idea's were coming so slow, and the demand is coming faster. '_ I guess I could make Alex a good friend on Lilia. Maybe I could also…' _As her thoughts trailed on, she didn't notice Mami coming up behind her.

"Yu~ki~na~! Can we talk for a bit?"

'_Oh, it's this woman again.'_ Yukina's displeased expression showed clearly on her face. "What do you need?"

"Oh, I just thought I could make a little deal. I can tell you some of Shigure's deepest darkest secrets, but only if you follow what I say."

Yukina was having a moment of déjà vu. Then she remembered the threat that Alex had pressed on her earlier. _'Great. Just one thing after another. Bad sleep, sent the updated novel to Shigure, an unpredictable transfer student, and blackmailed twice. What next?'_ Though Yukina had to admit that this was a great chance to add a twist to the novel.

"What is the condition?" Yukina asked.

Mami smiled, glad that Yukina fell into the trap.

"Oh, if you don't talk or communicate to Shigure for a week, then I'll tell you his secret. Easy, right?" '_Of course not,_' Mami thought, _'you two will be separated once SHigure realizes that he only needs me by his side.'_

On the other hand, Yukina was thinking about the mission that she had scheduled that afternoon. "When do I start?"

"In three seconds. Three, two, one, GO!"

_AN:_ As a disclaimer, I do not own the idea of Mami making Yukina not talk to Shigure. I just thought that it was a good idea.

In the next chapter: How will Yukina do mission 13 without talking? Will she really use Alex as a character model? How will she handle his split personality? What does Akira think about what is going on?

*Italian

**Hindi

***Back to your favorite Russian. It says: "E-e-evil! I see evil! Leave me alone!"

**** Russian : "I said leave me alone, you d-devil."


End file.
